PRESS RELEASE "Persistence of Future Memories" at Elijah Wheat Showroom
"Persistence of Future Memories"
Annie Ewaskio
Aimee Odum
February 2nd-Februay 25th 2018
Elijah Wheat Showroom presents an environmental winter show entitled “Persistence of Future Memories.” Displayed will be inventively vibrant paintings of Annie Ewaskio and delicate ceramics with single-channel videos by Aimee Odum. Opening, Friday the 2nd of February from 7pm-10pm. Together, the works present future landscapes that melt into folk-like narratives of Arctic expeditions and take-overs of a natural world. Remembering conflicting desires from human instincts to conquer the landscape (turning mostly tragic)—either the natural world is destroyed or the destruction becomes that of man.
How insignificant is a surfer against the mammoth waves of Nazare? What shelter can withstand a volcanic eruption? Where are the personal artifacts left behind a fleeing catastrophe? Where is the temple holding the bodies after the Earth’s last frontier crumbles? Here are works that are on the verge, a looming doom that speaks of an escape to a darker territory and a future that feels nihilistic, juxtaposed to an escape inside a utopian otherworldliness.
Just as an ‘emotional hangover’ may influence any retained memories in one’s consciousness, so do the shadowy and sprawling works in “Persistence of Future Memories.” Ewaskio’s paintings display a depth of light and forms straddling unfamiliar landscapes, highlighted by bold lines and saturated hues floating like remnants of a memory. Odum’s ceramics mold to a site unseen, giving to a passage that must grow and adapt to its new surroundings. The healthy formation of minds-eye remembrances steer the future, “Persistence of Future Memories” allows hope to bring us to an alternative reality, joyfully allowing our own recollections to connect, adapt and befitted as bold memoirs.
Annie Ewaskio has participated in solo and group shows across the United States, including GP Presents, A.I.R., and Underdonk (New York); Zolla/Lieberman (Chicago); Texas Christian University (Fort Worth); and Current (Baltimore). Her work has appeared in publications including The Brooklyn Rail, The New Yorker, and New American Paintings. Ewaskio is the recipient of two Kossak Painting grants, the Jerome Foundation Travel & Study grant, and the William and Dorothy Yeck award from Miami University. Residencies include The Arctic Circle Program and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, NE. She has an MFA from Hunter College, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Aimee Odum is a visual artist residing in Brooklyn, New York and currently oversees the Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery. Odum received her MFA in Studio Art from University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Here she also fulfilled curatorial endeavors and organized events as Director of sUgAR, University of Arkansas' student-run gallery, and as Director of sUgAR Vision, an Internet and Televised art platform. Recipient of the Sturgis International Fellowship, she was a Visiting Artist at Iceland Academy of the Arts in Autumn 2015 exhibiting her work at Mengi and The Living Art Museum. Recently, she premiered a collaborative, performance-based project in Belgium and was part of the traveling exhibition Running Towards Dreams exhibited in Fayetteville, AR and Tehran, Iran. Odum’s studio practice utilizes video, objects and installation, addressing how human instincts and cultural patterns formulate conflicting desires for the natural world.